The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for retouching a digital image by drawing the image at, for example, the cursor part of the digital image on a screen repeatedly in other parts, and a recording medium in which a computer program for image processing is recorded.
Along with the wide spreading of a digital camera, scanner, multimedia system, etc., general users come to have more opportunities of taking an image into a computer. Accordingly, as a tool for supporting the retouching of image taken into the computer, various products of software are presented for retouching the taken digital image.
Such software includes as retouching methods for erasing unnecessary objects, located in front of a building, such as passers-by and trees, and leaving the background building, a method of magnifying the partial image containing the unnecessary objects, and retouching and erasing this part dot by dot, on considering the surrounding intensity and color, and a method of cutting out a part of a building wall, sky or the like in a proper range, pasting the partial image to a part of unnecessary object, and erasing.
An image of a wall or the like, meanwhile, which appears to be entirely uniform in intensity in a photographic image is actually composed of pixels of different colors and intensity delicately changing depending on the texture, ray of light, etc. Therefore, even in the case of retouch of dot by dot for erasing a part of the wall which appears to be uniform, a sophisticated skill is required for retouching into a natural image on considering the surrounding intensity and colors.
Incidentally, a method of pasting another portion by utilizing the function called "copy and paste" is easy, but a photographic image as mentioned above is composed of pixels of different colors and intensity despite appearing to be uniform entirely, and therefore the boundary of the pasted portion and the surrounding is obvious, and an unnatural image with a strange feel is produced. It hence requires correction processing for making the boundary line vague to melt the pasted portion into the surrounding, making the retouching operation complicated.